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  • An estimated 1 in 10 people in Japan play.

  • In a market valued at 200 billion dollars a year.

  • There's scarcely a street across the country that doesn't have it, and you'll often hear it before you see it.

  • Loud, confusing, and a national obsession, This is pachinko.

  • If you've never set foot in Japan, there's a good chance you'll have never heard of pachinko.

  • I had no idea what it was until my first day in Japan, when I accidentally stumbled into a pachinko parlor,

  • in central Tokyo, and was subsequently deafened by the noise of hundreds of shrieking machines, and

  • thousands of ball bearings being blasted, in every direction.

  • I think the best way to describe pachinko is: It's part arcade game,

  • It's part gambling, and it's part... noise.

  • It's just *agh* to so unbelievably noisy.

  • But why is pachinko popular? And how do you play it?

  • I don't really have the answers to these questions I'm awful at it.

  • Uh, so today I've enlisted the help of a good friend who is a retired veteran of pachinko.

  • And he's going to share with us the secrets to success.

  • Isn't that right?

  • Natsuki?

  • Natsuki: Hello everyone!

  • Let's...

  • Pachinko.

  • Chris: let's go.

  • Pachinko has its roots in Chicago, in the early 20th century.

  • When gaming manufacturers started selling the Corinth game.

  • A children's version of Bagatelle pinball.

  • in the 1920s the game made it to Asia, becoming a hit in Japan.

  • Where it became a staple of Japanese sweet shops, as a means of getting children to stick around,

  • and stuff themselves with more candy.

  • And it soon got the nickname of "Pachi Pachi",

  • an onomatopoeia referring to the noisy, popping and snapping sounds of the game.

  • In the 1930s the game found a more mature audience,

  • When the board was turned upright and made larger.

  • However World War II began, and most of the machines were scrapped for metal.

  • For a time the game disappeared, and didn't reemerge until the late 1940s.

  • But it wasn't until after World War II, that pachinko became really popular,

  • with a surplus of metal ball bearings and factories across the country.

  • and an entertainment sector, desperate to be filled.

  • It wasn't long before pachinko,

  • Took the country by storm.

  • (Augh, c'mon really?)

  • [Dissapointed Chris Face]

  • Typically most pachinko parlors, each ball represents four yen.

  • with players depositing 500 yen into the machine, in return for 125 balls.

  • For the first 30 years for pachinko is very mechanical, it all depended on the amount of force you put on the lever.

  • This will dictate the direction of force, put on the ball bearing.

  • And using the lever you launch them, around the pachinko machine with the aim of getting them into a pocket,

  • known as the start chucker.

  • In the simplest games, this would lead to a jackpot.

  • And a flood of ball bearings which flow down, Into your container at the bottom.

  • and at the end of the game you redeem the ball some prizes.

  • the more ball bearings you have, the bigger the prize.

  • and then in the 1980s, pachinko machines became electronic gaming devices.

  • And things got a lot more colorful, a lot more noisy,

  • a lot more chaotic.

  • Pachinko is since morphed into a slightly more complex game,

  • the aim of landing balls into the start chucker remains.

  • However doing so opens up more holes to aim for, to increase your jackpot,

  • and triggering some rather crazy-looking minigames, which are more reminiscent of arcade machine.

  • [Natsuki yelling]

  • But, there's more to pachinko than just a flood of ball bearings, and a dizzying array of colors.

  • It is by far Japan's biggest gambling market.

  • Gambling in Japan is technically banned, however pachinko parlors have found a way around it.

  • At the end of a game you receive a coupon or ticket depending on the size of your winnings,

  • You can then leave the pachinko parlor, and head around the back of the building, or down a nearby street.

  • To a neighbor counter, Where you're able to redeem the ticket, for a cash reward.

  • And because it's on a separate building, the gambling laws, they're easily circumnavigated.

  • I remember the first time I heard about this loophole on how comical ridiculous it sounded,

  • but, when you're talking about a market worth 200 billion dollars, or four percent of Japan's GDP.

  • Well, it's a lot of government tax revenue isn't it?

  • Pachinko parlors are typically difficult to film in, with the sort of strict policies you'd find, in a casino.

  • But, we've been given access to film inside, a pachinko cafe in Takayama, in Gifu.

  • In the heart of the Japanese Alps.

  • With a colorful noisy machines, stand in contrast to the town's traditional, Edo era streets.

  • The Ebis Cafe is part of a growing movement, to throw off the image of pachinko being a gamble or sport.

  • Here you can't redeem your winnings for money, but you can turn them into prizes.

  • Like food, sweets, toys, or local sake.

  • They're keen to get the message out that pachinko isn't about money.

  • It is genuinely a fun, exciting, fast-paced game.

  • And what better way to see it in action,

  • than by finding out if Natsuki, The Pachinko Veteran. lives up to his reputation, of being a pro.

  • We're not gambling here today because gambling is wrong (mainly because I always lose).

  • What we are doing, is giving Natsuki 1,500 pachinko balls.

  • Natsuki: *noises*

  • Chris: And thirty minutes.

  • And we gonna see how many balls you can turn this into.

  • If you can get 6,000 pachinko balls, in thirty minutes we can win the prize:

  • Takayama's Number One Sake.

  • Natsuki: Takayama Sake?

  • First!

  • Chris: Yeah, Natsuki, can you do it?

  • Natsuki: I can do it.

  • Chris: Yeah? Do you have balls?

  • *dramatic sting*

  • - Natsuki: Of course. - Chris: Absolutely.

  • Go win me some sake!

  • Natsuki: Yeah!

  • Chris: I mean us. Us.

  • Natsuki (off camera): Ah Sake! Sake! I want a sake!

  • [Natsuki yelling about something]

  • Woo hoo!

  • [Natsuki saying something]

  • Watching Natsuki play I can understand how the game can be addictive,

  • with the intermittent waves of ball bearings pouring down into the players inventory.

  • Even if I understand the basics of pachinko, I'll be lying if I said I completely understood what's going on.

  • So Natsuki just done his first machine, he seems to win.. quite a few,

  • quite a few balls, I don't really know how he did it, I'm not sure even he knows,

  • but, there seems to be some kind of technique.

  • Natsuki: Yaaay!

  • Chris: Why do you think the pachinko so popular in Japan? What is it about Japanese culture?

  • And pachinko that go hand in hand.

  • When most people think of pachinko, they think of noisy crowded rooms filled with smoke.

  • However to counter that, the Ebis Cafe has a no smoking policy.

  • They have a restaurant area where you can sit, socialize, and eat and drink your winnings.

  • and for foreign customers bewildered by how to play, there's even detailed instructions,

  • on how to learn, and master pachinko.

  • As Natsuki hits the halfway mark in his quest to win me,

  • I mean uhh... Us, some-some... sake,

  • I sit down with Keisuke Shindo, the manager of the store,

  • who reveals perhaps the biggest change to conventional pachinko parlors.

  • So, we're now counting out Natsuki's winning.

  • In two buckets!

  • Natsuki: 2000...

  • Maybe... 4000?

  • Chris: Three thousand four hundred and eighty eight!

  • Over twice the amount started, 1500, and finished on 3488.

  • Natsuki: Thank you!

  • Chris: Yeah, nice one.

  • Yaaay!

  • bye-bye.

  • Natsuki: Eh?

  • Chris: Well done Natsuki!

  • Natsuki: Kampai! Chris: Cheers.

  • Natsuki: Kampai! Chris: Cheers. Kampai.

  • We did well, we did, so well.

  • Natsuki: Winning.

  • Natsuki: Winning. Taste.

  • Chris: winning taste, it does taste like victory.

  • The taste, of teamwork.

  • Good job mate.

  • Good job.

  • (Not teamwork?)

  • Well, it turns out pachinko isn't as much of a mindfuck as I expected it to be.

  • And Natsuki lived up to his word of being a glorified pachinko veteran.

  • To learn more about Japan's biggest game, to find out where we played,

  • You can get all the details in the description box below.

  • - For now guys.. - Great! Great! Great! Great!

  • - As always... - I'm winning, I'm winning!

  • Many thanks for watching, we'll see you next time.

  • Quick Natsuki drink in we gotta, you've gotta get back in there and get some more balls!

  • Natsuki: Ahh! Good to see you!

  • Chris: You destroyed the whole, cup of sake.

  • Oh, you're not gonna have a good night mate.

  • [Chris laughter]

  • "I'm drunkard."

  • Ah...

  • The confessions of a drunkard.

  • What a way to end the video.

An estimated 1 in 10 people in Japan play.

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